T3i Group Predicts Healthy Growth In IVR Market Driven By the Synergy of New Applications and Technology

According to T3i Group's latest research, the global interactive voice response (IVR) market, which includes speech recognition, will grow to $514 million by 2013, up from an estimated $431 million this year, due in part to the growth in voice XML (VXML) technology.

The new "InfoTrack for Converged Applications 2008 IVR Market Report" found global IVR shipments from the top 11 vendors exceeded 625,000 ports in 2008. The top three vendors based on ports shipped were Nortel, Genesys and Convergys; and the revenue leaders were Avaya, Nortel and Genesys. T3i Group said North America led all regions but with considerably less than 50% of the market, followed by the Europe Middle East Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions, respectively.

T3i Group segmented the analysis in this report by technology, applications and vertical industry.

Among the key findings:

• 95% of IVR ports shipped in 2013 will support VXML, compared with less than 75% today. VXML enables Web sites to offer the same text-based applications, such as order entry, with speech recognition.
• The top three IVR applications are incoming call handling for contact centers; inbound self-service transactions; and outbound calling, such as appointment confirmations, collections reminders and repair notifications.
• As vendors and enterprises integrate IVR into more comprehensive customer-care solutions, IVR ports shipped specifically for inbound calls to contact centers will decrease nearly 10% each year to 2013.
• In comparison, IVR port growth will be driven by outbound applications at a rate of almost 12% annually through 2013.
• DTMF (analog voice) port shipments are declining, while shipments of speech ports, which recognize speech or convert text to speech, will hold an almost 2:1 advantage by 2013.
• IP/SIP port shipments are growing strongly year over year; by 2013, only 10% of all IVR ports shipped will be TDM, compared with 42% today.

Cisco Delivers Advanced Network-Based Media Processing Platform

Cisco® (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced a media processing platform that simplifies live and on-demand media sharing across PCs, mobile devices and other digital screens, by seamlessly formatting video and rich media for viewing on any device. The create once and share anywhere Cisco Media Processing platform provides media conversion, real-time post production, editing, formatting, and network distribution capabilities in a single networked solution to help businesses develop targeted visual communications that drive intimacy with employees and customers. [click heading for more]

NTT DOCOMO Enhances Voice-activated Services with HP Media Server

HP announced today that NTT DOCOMO, a world leader in 3G and multimedia services and the largest mobile operator in Japan, deployed a standards-based media server from HP to reduce costs and shorten time to market for new services.

NTT DOCOMO is currently migrating its 54 million customers to the HP OpenCall Media Platform, which is designed to enhance the quality of voice-activated services. The server supports NTT DOCOMO offerings such as voice mail services, customized ringback tone services and interactive voice response services. The HP OpenCall Media Platform is designed to support many of NTT DOCOMO’s multimedia services. 

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TringMe Creates Flash VoiceXML Platform

TringMe has announced a Flash-enabled VoiceXML platform. TringMe said, "A lot of infrastructure is required to build voice application, because of the complexity involved in building interactive voice applications and the need for optimum performance and carrier grade reliability. Even with the innovation on both voice and RIA (Rich Internet Applications) fronts, something is required to bridge the gap and make voice accessible from RIA in a simple manner effectively." 

They added, "With TringMe, we have tried to bridge this gap. With extension of our platform, TringMe opens up VoiceXML accessibility to millions of flash and web developers to easily, yet, tightly integrate voice and telephony without having to know the intricate details of call-signalling, routing, billing etc."

Developers only require Flash and Web technologies to create rich voice and telephony applications. Applications that can be developed using TringMe's Flash VoiceXML platform include speech recognition, DTMF or text-to-speech. [click heading for more]

RadiSys Announces New Speech Capabilities for Convedia Media Server Family

RadiSys® Corporation (NASDAQ: RSYS) today announced that its market-leading Convedia® media server family now supports automatic speech recognition (ASR), or converting human speech to computer data, and text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities in multiple languages for IP contact center application developers and service providers. The company’s integration of a standards-based Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) with leading speech servers results in better resource utilization and economics, less equipment to procure and manage in large deployments, and improved scalability. [click heading for more]

Telesoft OKEFORD VoiceXML 2.0 compliant

BLANDFORD, ENGLAND: Telesoft Technologies, a leading provider of carrier-grade next generation Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, announced that its OKEFORD Media Platform has been certified as VoiceXML 2.0 compliant by the VoiceXML Forum. The VoiceXML Forum is a global industry organization chartered to promote and to accelerate the adoption of VoiceXML-based applications. [click heading for more]

Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Voxeo for Prophecy, Its Pioneering Interactive Voice Response Platform for Enterprises

Based on its recent analysis of the interactive voice response (IVR) market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Voxeo with the exclusive 2008 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation for its Prophecy IVR platform, a proven, reliable, and flexible solution for VoiceXML application development and deployment. [click heading for more]

Intervoice Releases Voice Portal 5

Intervoice, Inc. today announced the availability of Intervoice Voice Portal 5 (IVP 5), with significant new benefits for customers of all sizes. Among the features is Multi-Channel Outbound Notification which includes SMS, email and voice alerts that provide real-time notification of time-sensitive account events, emergencies and transactions. With this version either Nuance or IBM is available for speech recognition, text-to-speech and speaker identity verification. In addition to addressing large enterprise needs for a highly scalable solution, IVP 5 is also available in an all-in-one configuration for small to midsize enterprises. [click heading for more]

EMBARQ Calls on Holly Connects for Voice Application Deployment

Embarq Corporation has selected Holly Connects to supply its Holly Voice Platform as the foundation for the forthcoming enhanced subscriber services. [click heading for more]

TelcoBridges' Tmedia and Interact's SPOT Enable Creation of High-Capacity CCXML/VXML Solution

TelcoBridges™ Inc., today announced that Interact Incorporated Software Systems has integrated TelcoBridges' award-winning Tmedia telecom platform into its SPOT CCXML/VXML interpreter set. Using SPOT and TelcoBridges' telecom platform, operators worldwide can deliver IVR and conferencing services simultaneously on thousands of call channels, whether TDM or VoIP, within a familiar standards-based development environment.
Interact provides high performance telecommunication solutions for operators and enterprises throughout 28 countries around the globe. Interact's new CCXML/VXML interpreter set - called SPOT - leverages TelcoBridges' technology to improve VoiceXML performance, eliminate CPU and memory limitations caused by traditional VXML solutions, and provide no loss of service-no loss of calls application server redundancy. [click heading for more]